Allow Public Funds for Historic Preservation of Places of Worship

ACR38 is a concurrent resolution proposing to amend Article I, paragraph 3 of the New Jersey Constitution. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it does not take effect by legislative enactment alone. Section 2 requires that after the Legislature's final agreement on the amendment, it be submitted to the voters at the next general election occurring more than three months after that final agreement, and that it be published at least once in at least one newspaper of each county, designated by the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the General Assembly, and the Secretary of State, not less than three months before that general election. Approval by the voters at that election is what makes the amendment operative. Passage of ACR38 by the Legislature is therefore the necessary first step, and we urge every member to take it.

The operative change the amendment makes is narrow and precisely worded. It adds a single new sentence to Article I, paragraph 3: "Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph, public funds may be used to repair or restore a church or other place of worship as part of a historic preservation program." The word "notwithstanding" is important: the new sentence creates a carve-out to the existing Religious Aid Clause rather than repealing it. All of the existing constitutional text in paragraph 3 is carried forward without change, including the protections guaranteeing every person the privilege of worshipping according to conscience, prohibiting compelled attendance at any place of worship contrary to faith and judgment, and barring any person from being obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for building or repairing any church or place of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what that person believes to be right or has deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform. ACR38 does not disturb any of those protections. What it does is establish that, notwithstanding that existing paragraph, public funds may be used for the specific purpose of repairing or restoring a church or other place of worship when that work is part of a historic preservation program.

The bill's statement explains the immediate occasion for this amendment. The New Jersey Supreme Court held in Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders (Docket No. 079277) that Morris County's award of taxpayer funds to repair twelve churches as part of a historic preservation program violates Article I, paragraph 3 as currently written. Those funds came from a County Open Space, Recreation, Floodplain Protection, and Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund. Under existing law, counties and municipalities are authorized to establish such trust funds, but only with voter approval to annually levy funds for purposes that include historic preservation of historic properties. Morris County voters approved their county's fund in 2002. Despite that democratic mandate, the court's application of the Religious Aid Clause barred the county from directing any of those preservation funds to churches. ACR38 is the Legislature's direct response to that ruling.

The American Council believes the court's ruling, however faithful to the current constitutional text, produces an outcome that is neither equitable nor consistent with sound historic preservation policy. Congregations that have stewarded architecturally and historically significant structures for generations find themselves categorically excluded from programs their neighbors voted to fund and that exist precisely to protect irreplaceable community heritage. A historic courthouse and a historic sanctuary may sit on the same street and face the same structural threats, yet under the current rule only one qualifies for repair grants. That distinction is not grounded in any principled preservation rationale; it is grounded solely in the religious identity of the owner. We believe that is wrong, and ACR38 corrects it.

Section 3 of the resolution prescribes exactly how the question will appear on the ballot. In every municipality not using voting machines, a legend immediately preceding the question will instruct voters to mark a cross, plus sign, or check opposite "Yes" or "No." In every municipality, the ballot question will read: "Do you approve amending the Constitution to allow public funds to be used to restore a place of worship that has historical significance? This would allow public funds to be used to restore places of worship as part of a historic preservation program." An interpretive statement, also prescribed by Section 3, will appear on the ballot explaining that a recent court decision found that a county could not give grants for the restoration of churches and that those grants were used to repair churches as part of a historic preservation program, and that approval of the amendment would allow public funds to be used for the restoration of places of worship that have historical significance. Every New Jersey voter will see this context before casting a vote, which is precisely the transparent democratic process a constitutional amendment demands.

The American Council supports ACR38 without reservation. Passing this resolution through both chambers of the Legislature is the prerequisite to putting this question before the voters of New Jersey. We call on every member to vote yes.